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$6.99
Anti-Clockwise is the latest name for New Zealand multi-instrumentalist Brian Crook's solo project, following his eponymously titled solo debut released on the Medication label in 1998 and a more C&W-influenced album under the moniker Bible Black in 2002. Brian has a rich and varied history in New Zealand underground music circles, but is probably best known as one half of the songwriting duo (along with his wife Maryrose) in the primordial alt-country band the Renderers. He has also left his mark as guitarist, etc. for garage goths the Terminals and abstract experimentalists Flies Inside the Sun, in addition to his previous bands Scorched Earth Policy and the Max Block. The inspiration for the ten tracks that make up Anti-Clockwise's first proper release (after a limited 3" CD-R on Metonymic in 2005) came from Brian digging into records by such favorites as early Eno, Pere Ubu, and Thinking Fellers Union Local 282, plus PJ Harvey's Is This Desire? album, and experimenting with a stripped-down home recording setup to create a paranormal sonic underworld where nightmares of drowning and claustrophobia are the norm and aliens routinely stop by for a spot of tea. Haunted keyboard oscillations, overcaffeinated careening drumbox beats, webs of sinewy sinewave menace, undercurrents of strange noises lost down a wormhole, along with Brian's trademark languid alien-blues guitar work and his unmistakenly Antipodean voice make up the veritable portable soundlab that is Artificial Light. Evocative of everything from an acutely introverted Ron Asheton to the isolationist vibe of Loren Mazzacane Connors to the psych-lasso approach of solo Wayne Rogers to noise pointillists like Wolf Eyes, as well as the entire Stomach Ache Records roster, Anti-Clockwise's songs bridge the gap between the slow, measured melancholy of the Renderers and more formless out-rock/keyboard-based experimentation proferred by such labels as Last Visible Dog and Metonymic. Artificial Light is a co-release between 3 Beads of Sweat and the Renderers' New Zealand-based record label, Tinsel Ears.
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Martians
Dusted 2/19/06 Crook was also born with the right fingers and wiring to be a guitar hero. This record overflows with excellent playing, from the eerie slide licks on the title track and overdriven power chords on "Eye of the Driver" to "Gothic's" sullen acoustic strumming. He's an absurdly under-recognized player, most likely because he's only toured twice outside his native New Zealand in a career that's spanned twenty-odd years, but also because he's the kind of player who puts the music first. Even recording solo, as he does here, he indulges his virtuosity as much in accompaniment; for example, he suspends just the right corroded chords between his voice and the writhing bed of synth wiggles and drum-machine shuffles on "Where This Highway Takes Me." In the past Crook's song-writing has occasionally lapsed into monochrome bleakness – see his last solo outing, recorded four years back under the name Bible Black – but here he (ahem) renders different shades of darkness by framing them with sufficiently varied arrangements to sustain interest from beginning to end. The only flaw is the drum programming; implacable and unwavering, one sometimes wishes for more humanly imperfect tempos. Crook's kept a low profile for several years. This record, released in tandem with Maryrose Crook's Ghost of our Vegas Lives (which is effectively a Renderers record except that Brian doesn't sing), is a highly welcome return."
Catbirdseat 1/26/06 |
